Do Bonus Schemes Act As Sales Incentives?

It is commonly thought that sales people work flat out only if they can be sure of good bonuses and commission payments. These days, however, many psychologists take the contradictory viewpoint: incentives are not as attractive as their proponents maintain. Quite the contrary: psychologically, inaccurate incentive systems are more likely to be destructive. Sales force motivation is essential to sales success and is a core subject on any good management course.

 Recent psychological investigations yielded the following results:
 1. Incentives provoke a willingness in sales people to work harder for a short time. But if incentives are all about encouraging lasting changes in the sales peoples’ attitudes, they are just as futile as sanctions.
Material incentives do not bring about a change in the basic attitude, which determines the behavioural patterns of salespeople.

Material incentives do not bring about any eternal commitment either. Sales people expecting to be rewarded with a bonus for successfully concluding a task do not work as well as those sales people not counting on a financial reward. Just because too little pay can have a demotivating effect, it is not right to conclude from this that more pay stimulates more job satisfaction or has a greater motivational effect. This specific area is covered on any good management course.

2. Incentives are particularly attractive to the field sales division, however, because they are associated with definitive types of conduct, sales people feel controlled by their sales managers. Salespeople increasingly feel the feeling of being controlled as a sanction.
Furthermore: if a sales person is expecting a bonus and does not get it, this equates to the same as being penalised. The more attractive the bonus, the more demotivating it is when the sales person does not receive it.3. If sales people are forced to compete with each other for bonuses, appreciation or standing, this can obstruct co-operation and thereby good performances. Because for every winner, For every winner, there are countless others who consider that they are losers.
4. Unfortunately, sales managers often use incentives as a replacement for what salespeople actually need, namely, justice, advice, social support and room to maneuver.

This is all part of good management. It is, of course, easier to wave a bonus in front of your sales peoples’ eyes and hope for good results.5. When sales people are provoked into thinking about what they get when they work hard on something, they feel less like taking risks, plumbing new ideas, or following their initiative. 
Sales people working towards a monetary reward, which is exclusively dependent on their performance or anticipated performance, only think in terms of figures.

There is a message in the reward for a certain performance: The sender (of the message) is telling us that we have concluded something and in so doing controls our potential conduct. The more the salesperson feels controlled from outside, the more they will lose interest in what they are doing. 6. The more generous the material enticement offered to the salesperson, the more pessimistic their approach will be towards the activity they have to complete in order to receive it.
 
Whatever the reason for this effect may be, every material incentive or every success-related bonus scheme tends to take away a salesperson’s enthusiasm in what they are doing.

You may be thinking: “What is all this? If you don’t offer sales people an incentive, they will not do anything!” Psychologists call concepts like this a self-fulfilling prophecy! Promising a salesperson a reward for appearing motivated in their work is a little like offering salt water to someone who is thirsty. Therefore, so that your sales force maintains a high level of motivation provide individuals with equality, advice, support and empowerment. To develop your managerial motivational skills attend a good management course.   

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